Treasurer jailed for stealing from church account

Daniel Adjei, a treasurer of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church who stole 29 million cedis from the church's accounts at Odorkor was on Tuesday jailed three years with hard labour by an Accra Circuit Tribunal.

The tribunal, chaired by Mr Imoro Ziblim ordered Adjei, who pleaded guilty to stealing, to refund the money or face an unspecified sanction.

Police Chief Inspector Benedicta Akolgo said between August and December last year, the church authorities ordered a check of its accounts books during which a shortage of 1.5 million cedis was detected.

Later the church set up a committee to audit the books and it was found that 26 leaflets of the receipt books amounting to 7.2 million cedis were torn off. The committee also found that other receipts numbering about 77 estimated at 22.3 cedis could not be accounted for.

According to the prosecutor when the church authorities confronted the accused he pleaded with them to give him two years to pay the money.